December 8, 2006

On December 1^st, the Associated Press ran a brief story by Tom Breen about the city of St. Albans, West Virginia, having on display a stable, a star, a set of shepherds, camels, and even a palm tree.  The story suggested that responsible authorities were so overly paranoid about being accosted by overzealous scrooges beating the “separation-of-church-and-state” drum that they were oblivious to the obvious omission of baby Jesus from the manger.  The irony was apparently so profound that Jay Leno seized the opportunity to comment on it during his monologue on December 4^th as he pointedly noted that our neighbor to the south has the separation-of-church-and-state dilemma tied up even in its name, “St. Albans”.

Of course, the Christ child missing from the midst of all that Christmas décor remains a great metaphor for our society today:  I fear that our impulse is to want all the trimmings of Christmas, but only if we don’t have to keep Jesus in the middle of them.  But this is the problem.  Not having Jesus in the center of Christmas renders the whole great affair totally useless, a great and colossal waste of time.  Taking the Savior out of the Nativity makes as much sense as taking the word “Christ” out of the word “Christmas” and with no “Christ” in “Christmas” you are left with nothing more than a “mas” of unresolved heartache, hopelessness, and, worst of all, sin.

As I reflected on the story of the missing Christ-child, two thoughts surfaced in my mind.  The first was triggered by an editorial by Nat Hentoff of the Washington Times that ran on December 4^th in reference to C-Span’s airing of oral arguments on whether or not Congress can ban partial-birth abortions.  The reported language of the discussion was mostly sterilized and did not clearly depict what actually happens in the brutal and gory procedure although I understand that both lawyers and justices on a couple of occasions in the discussion DID forget to say “fetus” and instead said “baby” (subliminal admissions that I’d argue demonstrate that we do in fact understand that we are talking about the wanton killing and dismemberment of human beings).

Whatever language we might choose to describe these great offenses against God and humanity, I can’t help but muse that not only was a child missing from the decorative manger scene in a little town in West Virginia, there are countless children missing from our streets, our schools, our homes, and our lives.  What these children might have been, who they could have become, what they may have meant to us can only be known in the mind and heart of God.  As I pen this column, I am in mourning.

The second thought that came to me was in the form of a question.  What if Jesus, in sympathy for the little ones that we’ve “chosen” to “terminate”, was to boycott our churches, our towns, and our homes?  What if He, in deference to our supposed right to “choose”, CHOSE to simply not show up.  If you in any way truly do associate Christmas with Sovereign God’s intervention into human affairs with hope, then there cannot be any more an appalling thought than that God not only doesn’t feel like hanging out with us, but finds the idea unacceptable of subjecting Himself to mortal form, human suffering, unjust rejection, false accusations, and even a horrible death on a criminal’s cross.

Christmas without the centrality of Christ would be like having a victory celebration knowing that you haven’t really won the game and must just go through the motions of pretending to be happy.  Or it might be like having a birthday party for someone who’s just discovered that everyone wishes that you had never been born.  The world without Christ Jesus as its center is a hopeless, hapless mess just wallowing in the shadows of horror.

But I think that there are some who genuinely understand that Christmas really is about the joyful and amazing intervention of an awesomely holy God.  It’s a celebration of His circumventing our eventual self-destruction by interposing Himself on the altar of divine justice.  There are some who perceive that we not only need Jesus’ presence in the Christmas story, but also His active and living presence in our churches, His guiding and nurturing presence in our homes, and His holy and merciful presence in our hearts.

And He in turn would remind us that He did not stoop down from His glorious throne and endure all that He did so that we could live our lives for ourselves.  No, Christmas is an incredible opportunity to consider and honor the best gift of all.  Let us respond to His love with an attitude of joy, a heart full of gratitude, and a life full of trusting obedience.  Let us remember how precious is the gift of life and what a treasure our children are.  Let us spend ourselves in serving God and in reaching out to each other, particularly to those in need.  Let us be infinitely more eager and thrilled with experiencing God’s presence in our lives than in scoring a Sony Playstation 3, X-Box 360, or Nintendo Wii in time for Christmas.

“…My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant… for the Mighty One has done great things for me – holy is His name.  His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation.  He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.  He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.  He has helped His servant… remembering to be merciful” (Luke 1:46b-48a, 49-54 NIV).

(Thom Mollohan and his family have ministered in southern Ohio the past eleven years.  He is the pastor of Pathway Community Church, which meets on Sunday mornings at the Ariel Theatre.  He may be reached for comments or questions by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).